The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1887-10-16
eooD sronrrs on INN ri.Asa VI - :.

Tho great noise and excitement kicked uI
| m America whenever an octopus "A captured
seems queer enough TO q sailor who has voy.
| aged to tropical countries From tho Cap<
| Verde Islands clear around the coast Of Africs
| to the Gulf OF Alden. the devil nsh can befound
| In all tho biRhts and bays You can ind him In
| tho Indian Ocean. New Zealand Sea- Coral Sea-
among all the islands lying about New Guinea
He abounds In tho Mediterranean Sea and the
Pacific Ocean. and have seen him In oil the
waters from Cuba down to Cape Horn. and up
the other side Of Brazil to the Isthmus Of Pan.
| anna. He Ia by no means q rare sight to
sailors, and the fact that he 10 not dreaded,
like the shark, IL because instances are
rare where he attacks man. do not be-
nove the hideous monster ever attacks
human beings from hunger. The sea is fun OF
their sort Of food. and nature mover expected
them to prey on the flesh and bones Of tough
old salt have read and heard II often as
serted that the octopus sucks the blood and
devours the flesh OF the man unfortunate
enough to DO ontrapped In those awful arms,
but / can provo to the contrary. Ny experience
with the terrible creatures has also gone to
prove that they seldom or never attack o per-
son unless their anger is excited.
In 1865 was one of the crew OF the American
bark Henry Castle. which made voyage to
islands One day, while tho ship was lying In
the outer harbor Of samarsnR. Island Of Java.
two Of us pulled the Captain ashore in the gig.
We landed him on q rocky point. from whence
he took short cut across to the town, and
were ordered to wait there until his return.
My shipmste. whose name was Thurber.
stretched out for nap as soon as the Cap
tain had gone. while got out on the point to
have q look around. The water was pretty
deep alongside the boat, and by and by, full Of
q sailors deviltry, picked up largo rock and
heaved It into tho water with great splash. /
calculated on seeing Thurber start up In
alarm. but he only laughed at my effort. Then
I set out to wet him with q splash. and flung
i've or six other rocks as large az could
handle. was hunting for yet another. and
had my back to the boat and the water. whom
something brushed past my head. Imade
shu ans dssded that
had thrown some missile at me, and laughed
The laugh. however, died away in a shout of
beer keg had risen to the surface and partly
terrible arms were flying about like SO many
whip lashes. It had flung one Of them at me
a ass s a 20 fas h osy
reach me within 6iteen feet. The two longest
and the shorter ones from eight to ten.
~ could have restrained myself i1r few
ss waters a NO Ss
beak, the sauirming. Of. those horrible feelers
ss mxs lave kns1n ssss
could make no headway against the monster
os az Sp
REH9lpish body. It was Of this moment that
eonr oPeaaue lin
sSs sSss sIS sss .:;s
but he also acted on the first impulse. Lifting
up one Of the heavy oars he dealt the octopus
jury. He was raising the oar for Q second
blow. when ! saw three Or four feelers whip
% sss so to Tie
irsht and ,error as the i iesiers
chung to thwart with the clutch Of despair.
Mind you; everything had T. taken x PLACE in
noWns exactly what DO RoWsser aGs
done under the circumstance, hurled rock
onc: Whom e az ts 8l and
sSss 70 essehes me- .Re sraef my
hs
vessels. half a mile, away. Two boats, put Oh
Sst an but asS not H.
strength and |sEEt JERK Thurbsr from his hold and
there was . sort Of cave or recess In the
rocks Xhic ao vas the rd h9nS o. the crea
shrase down.
work got hold Of the sailors body and brought
t to land There was terrible 1b cash In his
octopus and wherever the cups OF the feeler6
had taken hold there were liyid spots and pms.
nor r; any OF the dssh eaten. do MT think any
effort Of ours scared the creatYreipto giving
up he dead It i had retained II, hold until
Saps, clang to i the longer for, oui attempts.
The natives said that my hsaying the stones
KIN Tor Sh and tp Sst
my action We should have seen nothiig Of him.
For over four years was mate ann master
American trader 1 do not think I pade
81 sss SoI wSer a. sssSS from as t. ZEE
Banda Sea It fell dead calm. and current !
dsd Us close n e. f as G TN the north
In a little bay, and when the schooner brought |
w she vac II twelve feet S Of wasSr and within
With forest and nnderbrush.. II was charte,as
uninhabited. except Occasionally ~ perl
As the weather was hot, the sailors slept o
deck. there being one white man and five MT |
lives. Everything passed of quietly until jus, |
In the gray Of morning. when terrible com
motion On. dsck routed me a.. o out II, Il,
the low side Of the schooner, perhaps to crafty
its curiosity. but seeing the sleeping men had.
perhaps also to crafty It's curiosity. flung .
feeler at one Of them and taken such hold OF
his hand and arm that he awoke with shout
Of pain. Tho others were also aroused, and
seeing what had happened they seized what
ever weapons were at hand and made the oc-
topus release It's hold. came on deck Just as
1t fell into the water alongside, and the splash
was as heavy as II q man had fallen overheard.
portion Of the feeler which had Rrasped the
sailor had boon broken of by the blows. There
were three or four feet OF 1t. and for o time 1t
squirmed and twisted about the deck like q
snake. 1t had touched the mans flesh only In
one spot on the back of the hand. but he made
as much ado over It as one would q bullet In
the leg II was horrible To S,1s hoy. however G
The spot where the cup had taken hold looked i
weeks before the wound healed, and tho scar
left closely resembled that OF burn.
I had the sailor In the. cabin dressing his
hand. and It Yves twenty minutes after we had
beaten OF the octopus, when there was an
other cry from the deck, and heard the men
run forward and tumble into the forecastle
and slide the cover More from instinct than
- 10. oil I'D In, n